Intellectual Poison

Leona Helmsley, a woman in desperate need of a reality check, got the ultimate reality check when she kicked the bucket (a golden bucket with gaudy ass diamonds all over it, I'm sure). And then got a final lashout from the great beyond when she hosed two grandkids and gave her freakin' dog $12 million.

But her legacy will also be that awful, awful picture of her, all scrunched up and mean and bitter and looking more toadlike than human. I'm sure she was thoroughly pissed off when she realized that all the money in the world can't keep you alive. Death does not discriminate even if she did.

Labels: death, rich bitch

A year of bad firsts for Burning Man, well, two of three are bad, the money isn't such a bad thing. Has Burning Man jumped the shark and lost some essential element that it had before it become the thing to do over Labor Day weekend?

First off, concerns about the estimated $10 million being made at this year's festival in the desert.
Second, some dude decided to light the "Man" a few days early.
And, now third, one attendee commits suicide while his friends think he's doing an art piece.

Hopefully that'll be the extend of the bad and the rest of the word from the event is good, fun, creative expression gone wild. Or somesuch.

In other bad news in thirds news,
One, my neighbor two houses up lost Drive and Reverse in their car. My neighbor one house up was able to repair it though.
Two, my neighbor across the drive broke his timing belt and scorched his cylinder head.
Three, my neighbor one house up just dropped $3K into his family car for maintenance and tuneups and then lost reverse today.

Bummer all the way around.

Hey, maybe I'll make a mini Burning Man for the backyard. I'm sure Grady would have fun with that. It has been too long since I used my dryer fire.

Oh yeah, we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium today to see the new White Shark in the big tank. They were blowing bubbles up the glass wall to keep the shark from charging it and hurting himself. It was still cool to see the shark. And a sunfish swam right below us, which Grady thought was really neat. But he spent most of the time running from place to place and then running back again.

And then he couldn't or wouldn't go to bed tonight until almost 10. I expect he'll be sleeping in come morning. At least he had better!

Labels: burning man, jump the shark, shenanigans, suicide

In Sweden, Underwear IS Porn

Funny, I thought underwear had to come off before any sex could really take place. I don't think an underwear fashion show can really be called pornographic, maybe lewd, maybe a cheesy way to ogle women's butts but not porn.

I'm all for underwear fashion shows but then I'm all for a naked society too.

Labels: naked, porn, underwear

I took my boys out for a walk along West Cliff above the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. This was taken right about Steamer Lane and is indicative of the random and cool nature of this town.

While I prefer my bikes to be open topped two wheelers, I bet this guy could carry good speed pretty easily. And the aluminum foil roof helps deflect brain control signals from government satellites, of course.

And we saw a snake, a big, four foot alive snake just getting warmed up in the sun. Grady thought the rock out in the water covered in albatrosses was pretty neat. He also particularly enjoyed one place where the wave coming in was forced into a narrow area so it crashed and splashed upward to the walkway.

If there'd been a bathroom midway, we would have gone all the way out to Natural Bridges. But alas, no, three cups of coffee must be dealt with.

Still, it was a really nice walk and I'm looking forward to doing it again soon.

Labels: bicycle, pod

aka Bottom Feeder Search Engine Submission Corp.

I wanted to thank you ever so much for your kind offer to help me promote a website I got as a freebie when I signed up with the much maligned 1&1 Internet Services. A website I did nothing with, never even opened it up in a browser. And it expired many months ago.

Thank you ever so much for offering to submit it to the 25 major search engines for the low, low price of only $65 for the year.

I can only imagine the misdirected and worthless traffic you would try to send my way and call it results.

Thanks but no thanks. I can submit my own sites to search engines (almost all of them have easily findable pages to do this and, really, is there any other search engine besides Google? no, I didn't think so).

Labels: bad marketing, misguided sales

Craig Says 'I Am Not Gay' but he has been under the microscope for a long, long time. And, if he isn't gay then he's definitly bi-sexual because there's just no way around lewd misconduct with men and to not be at least bi.

Which is fine, if you aren't a freakin' hate-filled hypocrite about it. Which Idaho Senator Larry Craig most certainly is.

Is it bad of me that I delight in watching these holier-than-thou moralists (I wonder if he was one of the one's shouting for Clinton's impeachment when he got a blowjob from Monica Lewinsky? shouldn't be too hard to find out) getting caught with their pants down in men's room and not so they can go to the bathroom? Probably but it really does make me laugh.

Sorry, I just want to poke some more fun at Senator (soon to be ex-Senator) Craig. Here's let put words in his mouth, instead of strange men's penises in public bathrooms.
"I am not gay because I am filled with self-loathing after engaging in man to man sexual relations and that means I am not gay, so there."
"I am not gay but sometimes I fantasize about Erik Estrada and strip searches."
"I am not gay but I've played one on closed circuit tv."
"I am not gay because I have children that I fathered, with a woman. So that makes me totally not gay."
"I am not gay but I am open to new kinds of experiences with strange men while travelling."
"I am not gay but I read it in a magazine once and wanted to try it before I decided I wasn't gay. My findings weren't conclusive the first three hundred times so I was doing one last check to make sure I am not gay."

I'd feel sorry for the old guy but he's taken his stand politically and his sexuality is his own enemy. Talk about compartmentalization and cognitive dissonance.

Labels: hypocrisy, I am not gay, republican irony

We got out for a good ride through lower Nisene Marks yesterday, withthe two dogs and later hooked up with a buddy and his dog too.

We also exploredsome tails that I'd never run before that were quite spectacular. Technical singletrack along the side of a hillwith sweeping dropoffs down to the creek below. Loads of fun and only partially sucky because I rammed a branch into my rear derailleur early on. It made my shifting a little wonky but workable.

After someloops and a good deal of sweating, we headed back out to the trailhead. Because we haven't gotten any rain in a few weeks, it was dusty and I was already parched. Distraction, tiredness and a root conspired to turn my ride into a short flight with an abrupt landing.

I was riding last in the group and had too much dust in my eyes so I couldn't see the root too well. And that was all she wrote, I went sailing over my bars which had suddenly turned sideways on me. My left shoulder and hip bore the brunt of the fall but I rolled through it and ended up back on my feet about five feet down the trail from where I started.

After a quick damage assessment, I straightened my bars out, tested my brakes and took off after my pals. Both bar end caps broke off so now I had two sharp holes pointing out front. My shoulder was abraded up a bit, my hip was purpling but I came through it pretty okay and happy as I've not wiped out in a good long while and figured I got off easy.

I'm fairly sore today but that was to be expected. A couple of Advil seems to do the trick. And I'll need to get some time fixing my bike back up again. But I'm looking forward to our next ride already!

[Update: I got forwarded a news blurb about a serious accident that took place in the same area we were riding, just a few hours later. Check it out.

Mountain biking couple fell 80 feet in Nisene Marks
A husband and wife were riding down the fire road on mountain bikes in the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park Monday toward nightfall when the woman lost control of her bicycle, left the road and went down a sheer vertical cliff about 80 feet to a creek, according to Capt. Greg Hansen of the Aptos/La Selva Fire Protection District.

The victims were flown to an out-of-county trauma center, but Hansen was not sure of their status. He was uncertain whether they were a local couple or from out of town.

The man thought he could slide down to reach the woman, but he ended up falling down the cliff as well, said Hansen.

The couple sustained major injuries, including a broken hip and dislocated or broken shoulder for the man, and broken ribs and a broken nose for the woman. Both had possible back fractures, said Hansen.

A state park employee was riding his bike by the scene, heard calls for help and rode to a phone to call for emergency services at 8 p.m., according to Hansen.

Fire crews, an off-duty park ranger and a civilian worked for four hours to retrieve the victims, using a rope system and baskets.

Very scary stuff. It sounds like they were unfamiliar with the area, it was getting dark and they didn't have lights. Still, I hope they are alright and live to ride another day. I'm not sure I know where this happened but there are plenty of places with 80 foot and more dropoffs. Its part of the beauty and fun of riding there. But it is also pretty dangerous in some places.]

Labels: bike ride, crash, launch

I hope the special prosecutor won't forget about Alberto "We Have a Right and Duty to Torture" Gonzales in the wake of his first good decision in years, the decision to jump ship and resign.

He also had district attorneys with whom his administration had a political beef with, fired. He also screwed up terrorist investigations and pretty much undermined most Americans faith in the justice system in this country.

Good riddance, just stay where we can see you, Al. I'm sure there are going to be more questions about your lack of ethics and general sliminess.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., reacted to the announcement by saying the Justice Department under Gonzales had "suffered a severe crisis of leadership that allowed our justice system to be corrupted by political influence."

Yep, that does a nice job of summing it up.

But really, I lost any respect for Alberto Gonzales when he came out strongly in defense of the US torturing terror suspects. Good guys don't stoop to the methods used by the bad guys and that's exactly what he was advocating. Dragging the US of A into slime and doing a terrible disservice to the country and our soldier's serving in his boss's ridiculous and never-ending pet war.

Good riddance. That makes four after Rove, who's going to be the next slimy little rat to jump ship?

Labels: politics, resignation, torture

I spent my Sunday on the campus at UCSC taking photographs of the University Road Race. It was a long day that started out very cloudy and overcast but sunned up quite nicely by the later races.

The course was a three mile loop up Hagar Drive, across McLaughlin and down the high speed arcing loop of Coolidge. The top racers went out first for a mere 20 lap race, that's 60 miles for the mathematically challenged.

I can't begin to express how impressed I was by their speed, stamina and tenacity. It made me feel very slow on my mountain bike. But I took solace in the fact that I could dyno down a set of stairs and not worry about destroying my rims and blowing out my tires.

But boy oh boy can they rip it up on nice pavement.

After the top men's racers were the lower tiers, the 35+ masterclass and the women racers. By the end of the day the sun was in full effect and the coolness of the morning was gone, replaced by bright, warm California sun.

I stayed until I'd completely filled up my 2 gig memory card and headed home about halfway through the last three races of the day, being run concurrently. Then came and comes the long processing of those 400 or so photos, correcting them for lighting and enhancing them for printing, uploading them to my e-store.

Ont he marketing side, my wife and two boys were super champs. They came up, walked the parking lot and handed out cards with the website and my photography company's name, CarpeVivo Photography.

Of course, things are never as simple or easy as they should be. After uploading photos from my camera, I burned a proof DVD and set it aside, in case of serious computer issues (burn me once, shame on you, burn me twice, shame one me). Then I started to process the images, working in batches and creating folders with all the images from each race. Once I had gotten the first race done, I started to upload thumbnails to my Backprint.com site, a process which took more than two hours for 55 photos. And, when I went to check my site, all of the images were broken. And I freaked out.

Bear in mind that this was after 11 pm last night, I'd been up since before 6 (thanks to Nande wanting out at 5) and I just wanted to cap off the day and go to sleep. But I had to sit and see if I could get a workaround. Nope. But I did figure out what was preventing me from loading up my blog so that was something.

Apparently, during the password fiasco last week, a Firewall setting had been switched off when it should not have been. I did not do it, I know that. But it got switched off and, once it was switched back on, voila, blog appears!

Anyway, I need to get back to processing the rest of the photos and get them uploading to the site. Only a couple hundred left to go. Maybe when I'm all done I'll look into a batch processing application or see if I can automate the process a bit.

Oh yeah, and I need to rattle the cage of the company I want to hire me. Let them know that they would be doing themselves a disservice by not interviewing me.

Labels: computers, photography, road race

Meh.

There was no contrition, there was nothing even resembling any emotion. He invoked God and that he found Jesus which scores points with the Bible crowd. He apologized to everyone a couple of times without appearing to feel sorry for anyone but himself.

His lawyer warmed up the room and warmed over the facts of the case by misrepresenting them, as lawyers are paid to do. He called it an incident and an event when this dog fighting ring was a pattern of cruelty and gambling and deeply reprehensible violence.

Vick said he would take full responsibility for his actions but entered a plea deal that protects his potential future in the NFL. You can't accept responsibility and then weasel out from under the most onerous charges against you, it just doesn't work that way. Make no mistake, Michael Vick helped kill sub-standard dogs, he bankrolled an illegal gambling operation and crossed statelines transporting dogs for fighting purposes. His plea deal conveniently omits all of those grisly details and that is, most definitely, NOT taking full responsibility for his actions.

He referred to his pending jail time and football suspension as "downtime" which indicates to me that he really doesn't think this is a big deal at all. Its just a longer off-season than usual.

I didn't see any remorse, I saw a prideful man forced to speak about his actions and he looked more like an ant under a magnifying glass, squirming and deeply uncomfortable. I hope that feeling of discomfort lasts for the rest of his life.

The one bit from his statement that I did appreciate was when he spoke about letting down all of the kids that may have looked up to him as a role model. And to use him as an example of poor judgment.

Overall, the statement was limp, fake and demonstrative of his lack of remorse rather than any realization of just how disgusting his actions and his person are to me and every other dog lover around the world.

Labels: cruelty, dog-fighting, football, gambling

NFL suspends Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick indefinitely after he files plea

And the plea deal tries to misrepresent Vick as just part of the gang and not the ringleader and bankroll. Good on Roger Goddell for bringing the hammer down hard on this miscreant scumbag.

You know what would go a long, long way to starting to repair your public image, Michael? Actually looking like you realize how fucking wrong and guilty you are. The smug look you carry may just be a survival mechanism but it makes me and every other dog lover in the world want to strap you down and beat you with a lead pipe. But I'm not holding my breath since you continue to give the impression that you think all of this is ridiculous and people are up in arms over nothing. It isn't nothing. You are a cruel and reprehensible man who gets his jollies from watching dogs forced to fight each other to the death. That's sickening!

I hope the suspension is permanent. I hope you are barred from playing in the NFL for the rest of your life. Or maybe they let you back after you've gotten old and slow just to watch the young studs bury you again and again?

Nah, that would be cruel, not unlike you hanging "sub-standard" dogs. Or drowning them. Or fucking electrocuting them, you disgusting shitbag.

I hope the judge in your case gives you the maximum sentence of five years and I hope each state that can prosecute you, does to the fullest extent of the law. I hope you emerge from the other side of this disgusting case a contrite man with just a tiny bit of understanding how thoroughly disgusting a human being you really are.

Goodbye salary, goodbye Nike endorsements, goodbye lavish house in the boonies. Hello, six by eight cell.

Labels: crime, dog-fighting, football

Unless you're a masochist, don't play challenging video games if you're already frustrated. You'll wind up with smashed toys and blood pressure that would alarm your doctor.

Labels: frustration

Woman trying to row across Pacific abandons effort after boat capsizes

Roz Savage is a new hero of mine. Even before she started, the desire to try it, the follow-thru to see it into reality and the smarts to know when to pack it in to try again another day.

We should all take note of her determination and try to apply a bit of it to our lives.

Labels: determination, strive

You've seen them, those "programs" that are nothing but long, long commercials that preempt actual programming on regular channels.

Well I pay for cable so I am explicitly paying for these lame commercials.

That's like paying to read ads in a magazine (oh wait). And its wrong. I want my cable company to pay me for watching these stupid things and maybe I would watch them. Probably not but it galls me that they sell the time to air these things when I'm paying them for access to the station.

Its a great sales deal for the station, they make money both ways. But its wrong and needs to stop. You want to sell my paid-for cable access to the station? Them reimburse for those hours. Otherwise, quit preempting real programming for this bullshit programming.

Labels: cable, scam, television

I am very, very tired of the car clearance ads. Toyota's Mr. Opportunity can go die a pixelated death any time. [Update: I almost forgot about their misleadingly stupid "Lots on the Lot" event ads, raining keys? That's just a stupid idea and could kill someone and, further, devalues the cars if their keys are falling from the sky.] Lexus (of course, the luxury Toyota arm) wants to cordially invite me to buy a $40,000+ car. Chevy, the perennial copycat company, is trying to convince me that I've always wanted a Chevy.

The other day we got a "special offer" from a Honda dealer that was requesting us to trade in our 1998-2004 Honda so they can resell it. Oh, and while we're trading our non-existent Honda in, why not buy a new one?

Which presents a couple of problems. One, we don't have a Honda and have not owned a Honda since the early 90's. Two, a special offer to help out a car dealership with their need for used cars is a pretty thinly veiled sales pitch to take on another monthly payment that we don't need nor can we afford right now.

I want a Tivo that blanks out ads I don't want to see. And a Tivo that removes ads that I've already "satisfied", that is, I already own what they are trying to sell me.

And I will really look forward to the end of the clearance sell-off season and, hopefully, the shelving of the annoying Mr. O.

Labels: clearance

You wouldn't think that two sweet and wonderful little boys could be as exhausting and exasperating as they really are. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore my boys, they are the lights and center of my life.

But early wakeups, screeching (Sully can't speak but boy o boy can he screech), whining, teasing, punching, biting and running away when its time to change nasty crap filled diapers takes its toll on even the most even-keeled parent. And I'm not even close to the most even-keeled parent.

Not that I don't try. I try incredibly hard to stay as patient as possible. But it is tough when you're sleep deprived and dealing with a toddler who can shatter glass with his piercing screeches.

My defense has been to get out and go for a long pedal, long enough to forget about the noise and cacophony awaiting my return to the house. I know that it won't last forever and that I'll look back on this time with nostalgia because my brain will gloss over the frustrating stuff and replace it with glowing memories. And, really, most of my time with my kids is a joy, it really is. But there comes those times when I need a break and there's just no break coming for a while.

And that's when I can feel my slippery grip on sanity easing its way out of my grasp and down the rabbit hole.

Labels: raising children, sanity

Still no access to my blog from home. Unless I use a proxy server and then the site loads up in a heartbeat.

What in the fudge is going on?

Labels: proxy server

So it has been made apparent that I am one of the only ones who cannot actually get to my blog. Thanks for the comments, by the way.

Which means, I can post to my blog but I can't go and read it. And, since the Grammar Police stopped by, I have to be extra careful about spelling stuff wrong or using the incorrect tense (or is that tents?).

I expect that whatever snafu is keeping from gazing upon the glory that is my blog will sort itself out and all will return back to what passes for normal. But it is annoying and makes me want to go punch someone.

My information recovery efforts continue though and that is making things a little better. I imported the first six months of photos from 2007 last night and then uploaded whatever archived images were on my camera memory cards. I still lost a lot of photos that I would just as soon not have lost but I've gotten the vast majority of it back.

Now the fun is trying to get preferences back to where I had them, FireFox extensions back, screensavers and the like.

And I have nothing but fear that my replacement hard drive in the lap top is going to start sputtering and die on me as well. If I were to take a vote, I'd definitely give a no-confidence vote for the laptop.

On the plus side, since my old hard drive is a skinny brick now, I'm going to take it out of the external enclosure, go into the back yard and smash it to bits. That might make me feel a little better even if the finality of destroying it means all of that data is well and truly gone forever. As long as it sits on my desk, I can hold out hope that it will spontaneously repair itself and function properly again.

But I am still not holding my breath.

Labels: blog, computer repair

This is a test to see if I can still post to my blog even though I cannot access my blog directly.

If you see this, please leave a comment and let me know.

Readers of this blog are already well aware of the nightmare I lived last week when my hard drive in my laptop died a quick and painful death.

During the process of recovering as much of my life from that hard drive, I had to recover my professional website by downloading the entire thing from my host provider. And I figured that was the hard part.

However, iWeb, the app it was designed and built in, does not contain an Open function or an Import function and I cannot figure out how to get the program to recognize the site it already made.

I'm upgrading the software now and will see if that makes a difference but I can't help but feel that Apple has really missed the mark here. Not only with trying to force users to subscribe to .Mac but also by making it incredibly annoying to try and recover a site after a crash or disk failure.

And I am still in the process of pulling together as much of a previous digital universe as I can. It takes a damned long time.

But it won't next time since I've implemented auto-back ups with iBackup.

Labels: Apple, bad engineering

NFL: Vick accepts U.S. plea offer in dogfighting case

And he should, if there is even a tiny bit of justice in the universe, never set foot on a professional football field as a player again.

Actually, he should never be allowed to walk the streets as a freeman again but I am not holding my breath since he's got alot of money.

The deeply disgusting nature of his crimes and just how graphic his involvement has, allegedly, been pretty much makes him scum. He could get fed into a chipper/shredder feet first and I might be inclined to think he got off easy.

I can't even think straight because of how disgusting and infuriated this story makes me.

I hope he goes to prison for a long time and suffers as much as all those dogs he forced to fight and die (and be killed) for his grotesque entertainment.

[Update: The Grammer Police stopped by and informed me in the most smart alecky way possible that I meant "infuriated" above and not "infuriatingly" as I'd originally written. I can't wait to catch Rhodes in a moment of grammatical weakness! The payback shall be swift and merciless! And I might just write a post full of grammatical mistakes just to cause him editorial pain. How ya like me now?]

Labels: crime, dog-fighting, football

In the wake of the murder of a prominent local newsman and the resultant shutting down of the headquarters in Oakland, the news has been interviewing lots of people involved in the story.

When they spoke to one guy, I could not pay any attention to what he was saying because he had rather enormous tufts of hair sprouting from his ears. Like a goatee almost, just coming out of his ears.

It was disgusting but impossible to look away.

I don't get how you could see yourself in a mirror and not notice that you've got more hair coming out of your ears than is on top of your head. Or maybe he liked it that way? I don't know but it was pretty nasty to look at.

Just like people who have never heard of trimming wild nose hairs and they have a little upside forest coming from their nostrils. Nasty!

Labels: ear hair, nasty

Prosecutor: Salinas teacher morphed porn to include students' images

And, with that, you've had a little glimpse into the sad, sick, pedophilic world of John Hawthorne. In addition to molesting students in his classrooms, attempting to bully some to his home with threats and possessing tons of child pornography, this sick bugger cut and pasted digital images of some of his students on to pornographic images he already had.

And that, folks, is sickness of the brain. It doesn't excuse his actions by any stretch but can there by any argument that this guy was sick?

The problem with pedophilia (or, if you prefer the Euro spelling, paedophilia) is that it elicits such a strong emotional response that it is nearly impossible to step beyond the overt taboo to see the truly warped and sick mind behind it. Partly because people don't want to and partly because people are so furious with the sicko to begin with.

Just like I would be if either of my kids were in his class.

And note, I'm not condoning his actions in any way, shape or form. I firmly believe that pedophiles should be held accountable for their actions as this teacher will be. But it could also be argued that he has an illness of the mind and maybe if he'd sought treatment, he wouldn't have lowered himself to where he is now. That's neither here nor there though.

Sometimes I want to lock my doors to the outside world and never let my two boys out again. I know that won't happen but there are just too many freakin' nutters in the world these days and some of them aren't our president.

Labels: pedophile, sick

FEMA: Dean Prep Far Exceeds Katrina

The dirty cynical bastard in me wants to think that the prep for Hurricane Dean is so much further ahead of where Katrina was is because its Texas, the President's home state and not because they learned the painful and expensive lesson from Katrina.

I have a difficult time not imagining that George Bush was far more interested and involved in preparing for this potential disaster because the disaster was targeting his state.

I'd like to think that he learned a valuable lesson in the aftermath of Katrina. But I don't think he's learned anything, I think he's just trying to do everything he can to save his peeps.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. But he should want to help protect and prepare all of America, not just his corner of the nation.

Labels: disaster, hurricane

The continued heartache I've been dealing with over the catastrophic loss of my laptop hard drive is the final kick in the pants I really needed to get a back up system in place and underway.

I've been somewhat lucky so far. I've gotten the first six months of 2007's photos back but have lost (so far) the last two months of photos. I hope Disk Warrior is able to pull that data but I don't know yet.

So, really, stop reading this and go back up your data. Burn it to DVD and put it in a safe place. Heck maybe burn an extra one and send it to your parents for safe keeping.

I'm using iBackup right now. I'll let you all know how it works for me.

Also, I read a good tip on Wired's Wiki about how to pull music off an iPod so I'll be able to repopulate my iTunes without too much trouble.

But I'm pretty sure there are a large number of files that are lost forever and that totally sucks. I still Apple should be more proactive in notifying users about potential drive trouble and pending failures. What use is a silent reporting mechanism that you have to go and check to see what's going on?

Labels: computer, data loss, photos

It has been made, somewhat painfully, apparent to me that I will not be able to generate a regular and decent income through my photography at this point. This is further rammed home by the recent and catastrophic loss of my laptop hard drive, may it rest in pieces soon.

On that note, by the way, I'm on last ditch efforts to salvage any of my data from the drive. Disk Warrior has been, thus far, useless and an expensive useless at that. Final steps include refridgerating the drive in the hopes that it'll spin up properly for a little while. I'm not holding my breath but it really would be nice to pull some of my info off it before I take it out back and smash it to hell with my hammer (why yes, I might take pictures).

But the reality is that I will have to go back to working for someone else for at least a while. Which isn't to say that I will give up on my plans, nope, I will just push them to evenings and weekends. In the meantime, I am casting my employment net and hoping to land a great job.

I had a very good interview earlier this week and expect to go back next week for another round with the rest of the team I'd be working with.

And today one of the companies in town that I would absolutely love to work posted a new job opening and its something I could definitely handle. I'll take the weekend to construct a cover letter and tweak my resume for a Monday morning delivery. And I might even follow it up with an in-person drop off to demonstrate just how much I do want the job.

I'd write more about it but I don't want to jinx myself right out of contention. Just keep your fingers crossed that my resume gets me an interview because I tend to shine during interviews. At least I do when its a job I actually want! If I get the interview, I'll tell more about the company and the job (and J? you will be jealous!).

BTW, if you're on the job hunt, make use of Craigslist and their RSS feeds for searches. It is the easiest way I know of to stay on top of new posts in your chosen profession. Take those feeds and add them to your Yahoo or Google home page or to your Bloglines feeds. Easy as pie!

Labels: employment, search

You know, I've always had a distrust of Gmail and I've now had it validated in the course of trying to get Disk Warrior 4.0 delivered. They strip emails with zip attachments as a matter of course in the war against spam. Which is a problem if I'm expecting and need that freakin' zip file.

I am all for fighting spam but not at the expense of my legitimate email.

I've often thought that my Gmail sent emails aren't being delivered or are being tagged as spam and trash canned. I sent an email to my extended family a little while ago and didn't get a single response. Which tells me that my family doesn't like me very much or that the Gmail address doesn't get through.

So I guess I need to figure out a new email system because I can't have my mail getting blocked by a spam filter either coming or going. I appreciate the thought but the reality is that it makes my life alot more difficult and I don't need more difficult, I need easier, smoother and less hassles.

Oh yeah, the tech support guy at Alsoft (who was very helpful) let me know that I will likely not be able to recover all of my data on the dying/dead drive. Great! At this point, I want as much as I can get.

Has anyone else had problems with Gmail blocking or getting blocked?

Labels: email, gmail, spam

You want to know what sucks serious balls? Trying to figure out how to recover my data from the dead hard drive I pulled out the other night. Disk Utility, the free and mostly useless program that came with the computer, is powerless.

I found a way to copy the hard disk using the Terminal and Unix but the goddamned info is so obtuse and annoying that it is more trouble than its worth. The language is incredibly aggravating to read and just not something I'm picking up despite numerous attempts to figure it out. I know there are Unix folks out there who could whip this crap out like nothing but that isn't me.

And I'm deeply annoyed at the lack of warning. OS X could very easily have notified me that the drive was having trouble but it doesn't unless you set it up yourself. So what's the point of having a S.M.A.R.T. enabled drive if you have to go and run Disk Utility to find out the health of your drive? That is just stupid and wrong. Apple (and other computer makers but I can't speak to them) should be more proactive, the system should alert users so that we aren't put in this incredibly difficult position.

Yes, I do back up but my last back up was a little while ago, before I'd done quite alot of new stuff. And all of that stuff is locked up in a 2.5 inch brick.

After much research and weighing of options, I opted to buy Disk Warrior 4.0 to get my shit back quickly. Of course that didn't work out quite as planned. The auto-download screwed up and the file won't unstuff. So I went through the email delivery of the software and have been waiting for a fucking hell of a lot more than a few minutes for the email now. Sure, the CD will be in the mail tomorrow but I don't want to wait, I just want my info, my apps, my music, my photos and my bookmarks back NOW. Right fucking now. Not tomorrow, not next week, NOW!

So I'm frustrated, tired and feel like half my life is temporarily lost. I think I'm going to go to bed and hope that tomorrow is a better day, computer-wise.

But I really do think Apple should be more proactive in warning of problems. Or, at least, the default should be warnings that can be turned off or down. That would have saved me an amazing amount of time and aggravation.

Labels: computer, software

I don't know how this is possible. How does your leg get chopped off and you don't notice? Putting aside the agony of a chopped limb, how did he shift or brake (depending on which leg it was)?

I don't get it.

Labels: accident, wtf

The second toy recall in as many weeks by Mattel was announced this morning and one of the toys being recalled is sitting on my desk right now. Check the site to see if any Mattel toys you've got have been recalled.

Its Sarge from the Pixar movie, Cars.

He, apparently, has too high levels of lead in the paint on his roof or something. Which is interesting because I always thought his character in the movie was the barmiest of the bunch.

By the way, Mattel, trying to pop up ads while navigating your product recall pages is just plain stupid. Unless you're selling a lead decontamination kit and its free, I am most definitely not interested.

What I don't get is why any level of lead in paint is acceptable? Lead does bad, bad things to developing brains. I don't get how any lead paint can be used in any toy, it just makes no sense unless you're a Chinese conspiracy theorist and want to think that they are intentionally trying to dumb down America some more. But that's a little out there.

What does lead add to paint that makes it worthwhile to add? Can it be worth it when one executive has committed suicide over the recall already? And what a statement he has made about taking responsibility for the damage. Can you imagine an American executive doing the same thing? I know I can't, unless he was facing permanent jail time or worse (whatever that could be).

[Update: Here's a link to the government list of toy hazard recalls. Scary stuff!]

Labels: bad manufacturing, suicide, toy recall

Last night, just before bed (of course), my laptop started acting funny and making noises that someone might describe as funny but I'd describe as expensive. And then I started to get cascading application crashes, total hang ups and ten to fifteen minute reboot times.

After futzing with it for a while and getting it to limp back to something resembling a working condition, I went to bed.

And then ended up spending the better part of the day trying to bring the sucker back to life. Which did wonders for my mood.

Oh yeah, this is the same laptop that I just dropped $500 on five weeks ago to replace a frying video card.

Anyway, after much wranglgin, swearing and diagnostic work I arrived at the diagnosis, a dying hard drive. Wonder-fucking-ful!

Luckily I happen to have several spare laptop hard drives around and one 80 gig that is slated for installation shortly. Then I get to see if I can pull my music and photos off the old drive before I smash the sum-bitch into a thousand pieces. I did back up my photos a couple of weeks ago so I'm not overly worried about losing too much. But it is a colossal pain in the ass and I'm not looking forward to breaking the case open. But it has to be done and I'm sure as hell not paying some geek monkey to do it for me.

'Specially when there are these sweet and complete installation guides online, with photos! Now I just need to be extra careful with the connector ribbon cable and I'll be back on the speed(ier) nachine before bedtime. Or I'll have a shiny Apple-branded brick.

BTW, thank fortune for my old war horse Pismo that just keeps chugging along. It ain't fast but it works and that's good enough for now.

[Update: We have arrived on the other side, more or less unscathed. The annoyances now are that my bookmarks are locked up in a dying hard drive on my desk. That and the last few weeks of photos and all of my music from the last year or so (much of the rest of it has been backed up (coincidentally to the hard drive I just installed). Now comes the additional fun of updating apps, losing all of my photo albums and iTunes playlists and lots of other stuff that I won't remember until I need it again. This sucks but at least I've got my machine sort of back.]

Labels: computer repair

Karl Rove to Resign at End of August

And the incredibly ugly speeches about what a great man he is and was and what a great patriot he is have already begun.

Which is just revolting.

Let's be perfectly clear, Karl Rove is a disgusting, partisan, liar, crook scumbag. He deserves jail time for his outing of Valerie Plame and that's just the biggest scandal we know of. Rest assured that he is as dirty as they come.

How this scumbag slipped off Fitzgerald's hook is beyond me. I hope that he will one day face prosecution for his crimes against this country and the world and humanity in general.

Or I hope he slips and falls down a flight of stairs, a really, really long flight of stairs with an alligator pit at the bottom.

That he is able to resign instead of being led away in handcuffs is an affront to all that is good in the world. This is an example of evil winning, for now.

More than usual, my blogging has been lame to non-existent. I could trot out some lamer excuses but what's the point?

I need to go for a bike ride to clear my head, discharge some angst, burn off some of the spare tire and just to decompress. But that has to wait until later today.

For now, I'll just check on Sully and his bloody lip from an accidental altercation with Grady's knee earlier this morning. The good thing is that it doesn't seem to be keeping Sully up, he's snoozing quite peacefully right now.

Oh yeah, one nice big positive from yesterday. I got a chance to tear down, scrub and clean the aquarium, which really, really needed it. I've been battling horsehair algae for more than a year now, the stuff is nasty and pernicious.

And maybe I'll see if I can knock out some of the smaller wrap-up jobs around the house while it is semi-quiet.

I need something to look forward to and, for right now, it is a good, long and tiring bike ride.

Labels: blah

Virtual Sex Machine Spawns Lawsuit

Do you remember Second Life, the online game that purported to replace your first life with a better, cooler and zanier online simulcrum?

Well now, for $45, you can add simulated sex to your online world.

Yahoo! Or should I rather say "How sad and pathetic".

It is really quite simple.

Tyra Banks has crazy eyes. I could have ended the post right here but, alas, I cannot.

Oprah does not.

Tyra Banks has two names.

Oprah does not.

Tyra Banks is a supermodel turned talk show host and retained her diva mentality.

Oprah is a reporter/journalist turned talk show host and has retained her humble roots (or at least does a better job of appearing to have retained her humble roots).

But really it comes back to the eyes, Tyra's fucking insane. And yes, I do half expect her to come knocking on my door and set me on fire with those crazy eyes.

Labels: celeb culture

Giant Lego Man found in Dutch Sea

Don't be misled by his beguiling smile and lack of armaments, actually, his smile is more of a smirk. This giant man does not come in peace (or pieces). He wants chocolate, he wants quality pocket knives and he wants an all-season ski pass. In addition to his world domination plans.

And if he doesn't get them then there will be more, many, many more of him to contend with and the smiles will be gone, replaced by steely glares and large plastic swords and pirate blunderbusters.

However, flamethrowers work quite well against the plastic men. Until they start using flame retardant plastics to manufacture the 2.0 version. And then we're in real trouble.

Labels: lego

I thought you all should know, there is a distinct difference between Newtflix and Netflix.

One has all your triple X salamander porn needs and the other has, you know, regular movies.

Labels: IPPSA

Here's a short song describing Sully's technique for entering and leaving the tent (it has a stepover).

You faceplant in,
You faceplant out,
You turn in circles
And then you fall about.

You do the Sully Pokey
And you shake it all around
That's what its all about.

And there ya go.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a baby, 4Real!

A Kiwi couple (that's New Zealand for you non-geographical lingoists) decided that they wanted to name their child 4Real because that's the emotion that hit them when they saw their baby on the ultrasound monitor, that he was For Real.

A Kiwi judge ruled that you can't name a kid with a number. So they named him Superman and are going to call him 4Real.

And I keep thinking about that great scene in Parenthood or one of those coming-of-age movies with Keanu Reeves where he monologues about needing a license to drive but they'll let any stupid bastard become a parent.

Rule #80 is Put Down the Crackpipe Before Naming Your Baby

Woops, this was supposed to get posted to What Not To Do.

Labels: wntd

Last week we bought a new and much larger tent to replace the one we had when there were only two of us. The new tent isn't one of those three room numbers but it is alot bigger than the one we had before.

I've been testing it out the last couple of nights by sleeping in it in the backyard. One thing I can say is that it never really gets quiet here. And my neighbors down the hill should go inside when they're been drinking and feel like shouting stuff.

Anyway, before we'd replaced the tent, we had the other one set up in the yard as well. And one day, Grady asked for a blanket and went and laid down on the air mattress in it and took a two and a half hour nap. I even put together the new tent not six feet from him and he barely stirred.

Well, the new tent is big enough to actually fit his cool little pop-up tent and his Thomas the Tank Engine inflatable bed and sleeping bag inside with a pretty good amount of space between it and the air mattress.

This morning he tested it out and seemed quite satisfied with his comfort level. Until I showed up and he thought it was more fun to jump around and wrestle with me on the air mattress. And he was right.

But I hope he takes a nap in his tent within a tent. If he does I'll snap some pics.

Labels: children

Bonds ties Aaron, belts 755th home run but the Giants still lost, again.

Anyway, I'm glad the record has been tied, I hope the Giants are able to concentrate on something else for a little while.

Also, I know there are a lot of people who believe that Bonds breaking the record and being excited about it equates to condoning the use of PEDs and cheating in general. While I respect that point of view, I also respectfully disagree that they are one and the same.

It was a baseball moment, regardless of the circumstances, it was a baseball moment and I wish I could have been there for it. The San Diego fans showed themselves to be baseball fans when they stood up and cheered as loudly as they could when he hit it. They felt what an occasion it was and they enjoyed it as baseball fans beyond being Padres fans (besides, they probably knew the Giants wouldn't beat them).

Call me a Barry apologist, call me a fake fan, call me whatever. It was pretty cool to see it happen, even if I had to rewind the Tivo to see it because I was outside at the exact time the home run was hit.

Labels: baseball, records, steroids

I will admit that I wasn't super thrilled about the early rise and roll today to get out to the Santa Cruz Mountains Challenge 2007 put on by Santa Cruz County Cycling Club. The coffee helped, as did the 40 miles of twisty fun empty roads on my moto! And I got this shot and many more, I'm still working through the mass and should (or maybe might) end up with upwards of 180 keeper shots. Maybe. Maybe not.

First off, I cannot imagine a more beautiful place to grind out 66.4 or 100 miles (depending on which loop you choose to ride). Some of the vistas along 236 above Big Basin National Park are really and truly astonishing.

Second, there were hundreds and hundreds of places to choose from to photograph the riders. The one I chose with the boys the other day ended up not being satisfactory and I changed to another place. I changed from a descent to an ascent out of a corner with good sun and a good turnoff to get my motorcycle well off the road.

The next step, after culling the out of focus deleters and other unmentionable miscues, will be to upload all of the thumbnails to my Backprint.com store for reprint sales. But that will have to wait until tomorrow as I am bushed.

Oh yeah, by the way, my pro photography website is called CarpeVivo Photography. Stop by and take a look if you're looking for prints from today's race.

Labels: cycling, photography, santa cruz

It is early, no kids are up, the cat wants out (but she's not allowed out since she just had an abscess) and I'm packing up to head up to the mountains.

The Santa Cruz Mountains Challenge 2007 begins in just about a minute. I'm headed to a spot on 236 near Big Basin National Park to take photographs of the peleton or breakaways or whoever I can.

As much for a training exercise as to take photos of riders in action, we'll see how it goes. Be back in a few hours!

Labels: cycling, photography

** Warning, pending sexually based post ahead. Veer off now if reading the word "sex" makes your heart rate jump in an unsafe manner. **

One would think that a site purported to be the home of the World Sex Records would be a decently fun site to read through.

I'm not sure if they made it dry and boring on purpose or if it just happened that way. Some pictures would be nice. Something to break up the monotony of large block chunks of text with juicy bits hidden between timelines and locations.

Take, for example, Most Pendelous Breasts by Race. Haha, perfect man fantasy fodder you're thinking? Try some of the copy.

Breasts come in all shapes and sizes and hues. We have already noted some massive specimens: there are other ways in which breasts can be excessively dimensioned. They can, for instance, be extremely long, dangling like strips of skin. This occurs in a number of African tribes and can be common in both young and old women. It is not unknown for women to toss their breasts over their shoulders to keep them out of the way while working.

Um, well that sounds practical.

And now, I have the song, "Do your ears hang low?" stuck in my brain.

Though, this page details the most penises chopped off post battle and presented to the King as trophies (hint, the number is north of 13,000).

Did you know that three or four men in a thousand are able to orgasm through concentrated thought alone? It is, apparently, the rarest form of orgasm. Blowing oneself is fairly common with three or four in a thousand capable and willing.

And don't read about the most drastic sex aids. Just don't. Those Bataks are some crazy mofo's though, damn!

I'll probably have nightmares now. Thanks, World Sex Records.

Labels: sex records, wtf

Today's word is NSFW, that's not safe for Work or Kids. So don't look at the line below if you're not supposed to.

Identifuckation - when you have a valid ID but you're still barred entry.

Labels: nwotd

We're watching a couple of kids for some friends today. This means we'll have four children in the house under the age of 5. Which means things will be insane. I expect chaos and shouting will reign supreme this day.

But perhaps I'll get a chance to snap some photos as well. So far it doesn't look like the fog is going anywhere.

[Update: Sully woke up a few minutes after posting this. He'd wriggled his way out of his diaper and was dancing around his crib happily flapping around. Hard to not laugh.]

[Second Update: There are now four children in the living room pounding on drums, shaking shakers and doing as much as they can to make some noise. No meltdowns thus far and the Jellybean Jumper is a total success. So is the rubber horseshoe set for that matter (which is oddly no longer carried by Back to Basics Toys).]

[The Wrap Up: And now its almost time for the debrief.
Both extra kids have gone home. One of mine is crying himself down in his crib, the other is reading stories with mom and nearing unconsciousness.

The day was pretty ridiculously long and I've gotten more than my quote of whining in for the rest of the year. But it wasn't too awful overall. We had a good walk, we played at a park nearby, we played in the back yard, in the jumper and I put up the tent again. It was a good time but it looks like a herd of elephants ran through the living room, the devastation is pretty severe.

But we'll pick up tomorrow, its time for some rest now.]

Labels: children